1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a method of more accurately stimulating a living body and an apparatus using the method and, more particularly, to a method that is capable of more accurately stimulating a living body by deriving a systematic algorithm between bio-related measurement information and stimulation information and to an apparatus using the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Methods of stimulating a specific portion of a brain are mainly classified into invasive stimulation methods and non-invasive stimulation methods.
Generally, such an invasive stimulation method is a method of exactly installing an electrode at a specific target position via surgery, applying an electrical signal to the electrode, and then directly stimulating a specific portion of the brain.
The invasive stimulation method is an accurate and effective stimulation method, but has a limitation in that a danger caused by brain surgery may be present, and thus this method is limitedly used only in the case of very serious brain diseases, such as Parkinson's disease.
A non-invasive stimulation method is a method of attaching an electrode to a specific position of the scalp, applying electrical and magnetic signals to the electrode, and stimulating a specific portion of the brain.
Such a non-invasive stimulation method is limited in that it is difficult to exactly stimulate the specific portion of the brain, thus requiring a process of trial and error.
Therefore, the non-invasive stimulation method must include the step of stimulating a specific position of the scalp for a predetermined period of time, the step of determining whether the specific position that is targeted is actually stimulated by using a brain signal measurement device, such as Electroencephalography (EEG) equipment or a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scanner, and the step of, if it is determined that the specific position has not been stimulated, changing the position of the electrode, stimulating a new specific position of the scalp, and determining whether the new position is actually stimulated by the repositioned electrode.
That is, the non-invasive stimulation method is problematic in that it requires a process of trial and error, thus repeatedly stimulating inaccurate positions.
In particular, when such inaccurate positions are repeatedly stimulated, the non-invasive stimulation method may not obtain targeted effects or may obtain effects lower than the targeted effects, and may cause a problem in safety because a stimulation time is lengthened.
Such conventional cranial nerve stimulation technology includes U.S. Pat. No. 7,460,903 (entitled “Method and system for a real time adaptive system for effecting changes in cognitive-emotive profiles”).
Such a conventional cranial nerve stimulation technology includes the step of acquiring various bioelectric signals required to determine a current psychological state, the step of comparing the current psychological state so as to extract a multi-dimensional cognitive-emotive profile based on the bioelectric signals; mapping the cognitive-emotive profile onto a set of commands; the step of delivering brain stimulation commands to drive therapeutic and non-therapeutic stimulus intervention; and the step of applying a prolonged change to the cognitive-emotive profile.
However, such conventional cranial nerve stimulation technology is problematic in that it is implemented using a method in which acquired information matches a command set in which output information corresponding to input information is preset, thus requiring the above-described process of trial and error so as to create the preset command set.
Further, since the command set used in this way is either created depending on experience rules or created using the mechanism of bio-related information that is academically identified, there is a limitation in that the command set is dependent on incomplete experience rules or limited biological mechanisms, thus causing restrictions in precision and accuracy.